Saturday, September 01, 2007

Reading the Author Challenge

Today is the first day of the Reading the Author Challenge hosted by Incurable Logophilia. This is a fairly simple and straightforward challenge. You pick an author. Any author. You choose the number of books. You choose which books. The challenge ends December 31, 2007.

My author? Orson Scott Card. My books? Speaker for the Dead. Ender's Shadow. And Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus. Why only three? Well, none of these are YA books. And none of them were published in 2007. So every hour I spend reading them is one hour less I have to devote to reading what I'm supposed to be reading. So three it will be for now. Perhaps, with the 24 Hour Reading Challenge coming up, hosted by The Hidden Side of the Leaf, I'll be able to knock off many on my tbr pile and I can squeeze in a few more titles. We'll have to wait and see.

The good news? This goes perfectly with my own challenge I'm trying to promote: the Cardathon Challenge. My challege begins "officially" in January. I'm finding that most people are shopping now for their new year challenges. But unofficially, my participants can start the day they join. Chris has already posted a review of one, Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson. While you're at his site, be sure to check out his post, How I Found My Favorite Author. His post is a response to my prompt on sharing your story on how you became a fan. Read mine here.

For those curious of the Cardathon rules and wondering why Bridge To Terabithia--clearly by Paterson and not Orson Scott Card is part of the challenge--then read the guidelines on eligible books.

To qualify for the Cardathon Challenge a book needs to meet one of the following criteria:

1) a book written by Orson Scott Card
2) a book edited/compiled by Orson Scott Card
3) a book with an introduction by Orson Scott Card
4) a book reviewed by Orson Scott Card on his official website.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for joining in - I've never read Orson Scott Card so I look forward to reading your reviews and discovering this author.

Dewey said...

I really want to join this, but I'm so overchallenged, that all I can think of as a way to join is to choose Neil Gaiman, which would mean using him to triple up on challenges. I'm already going to be reading him for the RIP challenge and the Unread Authors challenge. It'd feel like cheating!

Becky said...

Verbivore:

I'm excited about the Reading the Author challenge :) I almost wish I could pick a dozen authors. But then again, I'm always overzealous in making plans. Maybe if this goes well, you'd consider doing this challenge again next year :)

Becky said...

Dewey:

You do seem to be overchallenged and admitting it. I'm overchallenged and in denial. I don't think it would be cheating. I'll probably end up changing some of my titles so they fit with the R.I.P. Challenge. I should have thought about that before posting last night!

Anonymous said...

I am definitely considering this challenge as a repeat for next year - I've also got dozens of authors I'd like to pick!

Becky said...

So glad to hear! My list of "favorite" authors seem to grow week by week and month by month. And I love that this challenge gives a *valid* excuse for indulging.

Becky

Dewey said...

Hmm, those rules, which I didn't notice the other day, open up the Cardathon quite a bit! I wasn't even considering it, because I've read all the Alvin Maker books TWICE, and I'm not interested in the Ender's Whatever stuff, and I didn't know if any other Card books. But if it can be anything he even reviewed! Hmm, tempting. I need more willpower!

Becky said...

Card has written a lot of other books. But the list of books he's reviewed is even more expansive...and quite diverse. :)

And you could always join the Cardathon when you're feeling less overchallenged...because you can sign up after the official start date as well :)